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Northern Essex Community College

Module 4 Prep Activity

Review the activity overview, learning objectives, directions, and submission expectations before submitting your work.

Overview

Police agencies invest significant time and resources in hiring new officers because the quality of personnel directly impacts public trust, officer safety, organizational culture, and agency effectiveness. Modern police departments must identify candidates who possess the knowledge, skills, ethics, and temperament necessary to perform a challenging and highly visible public service role.

This activity asks you to evaluate what qualities and qualifications are most important when selecting police officers. You will prepare arguments supporting different hiring priorities and examine how agencies balance education, experience, character, diversity, physical ability, and interpersonal skills during the hiring process.

Learning Objectives

(These objectives support the prep activity and are not the questions to be answered.)

  • LO1: Explain the factors law enforcement agencies consider during the police hiring process. (SLO2)
  • LO2: Evaluate how education, experience, ethics, and personal characteristics contribute to effective policing. (SLO5)
Prep Topic
  • Your police department is hiring a new class of police officers. City officials and police administrators disagree on what qualities should receive the greatest emphasis during the hiring process.
  • Create a bullet list of arguments supporting both positions below.
  • Position A: Police agencies should place the greatest emphasis on education, communication skills, ethical decision-making, cultural competency, and problem-solving abilities.
  • Position B: Police agencies should place the greatest emphasis on practical experience, physical fitness, officer safety skills, decisiveness, and law enforcement aptitude.
  • For each position, prepare at least five talking points.
  • Consider issues such as:
    • College education requirements
    • Military experience
    • Life experience and maturity
    • Communication and de-escalation skills
    • Physical fitness standards
    • Ethics and integrity
    • Psychological screening
    • Community relations
    • Diversity and representation
    • Officer safety and survival
  • Imagine you are serving on a police hiring board that must select the best candidates from a large pool of applicants.
  • Be prepared to defend either position during class regardless of your personal opinion.
Acceptable & Ethical Use of AI
  • You may use AI tools to help identify common police hiring standards or recruitment practices; however, you should independently verify any information before including it in your prep activity.
  • If you use AI to assist with brainstorming or research, your final prep must reflect your own analysis, conclusions, and understanding of the course material.
Directions

Please read all instructions carefully before submitting your prep activity.

  • Your prep should be no longer than 1 page.
  • This NOT a paper but rather talking points in bullets for our in-class meeting.
  • Abstract NOT needed.
  • Sources are NOT needed.
  • Submissions are checked against a Plagiarism Checker and AI Detector.
    • Direct quotes should not exceed 15% of the total paper.
    • AI Usage – you must use AI ethically. Papers written by an AI is cheating.
  • Stop over-thinking this activity. It should be a simple list of talking points.
Submission Guidelines
  • Submit your prep activity through the designated submission area.
  • Accepted formats include Word or PDF unless otherwise specified.
  • Review the grading rubric before submitting your work.
  • Submissions are checked using both a plagiarism checker and AI detection software.
  • Direct quotations should not exceed 15% of the total submission.
Important Reminder

Important: All work must be your own. AI may be used only in the limited and ethical ways described above. Using AI to write your submission is considered academic dishonesty. This activity is intended to prepare you for class discussion, so focus on creating your own talking points and analysis.